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Saturday, November 2, 2013

El Clasico Review

Real
Madrid versus Barcelona is the most intense rivalry in sports and the most watched
sporting

event of the year. One
of the oldest rivalries in soccer history was renewed on October 26 and

this one was an
especially important game for two new players of El Clasico. The Welshman

Gareth Bale, who plays for Real
Madrid, is the most expensive player in soccer history, Bale went

from Tottenhnam to Real
Madrid for over 100 million euros (about
85.3 million in U.S. dollars)

and the Brazilian
international, Neymar of Barcelona.

For someone as expensive as Bale you
would think that he would leave his mark on the

game but that wasn't
the case. In fact, since the start of his season in August he has only

scored one goal against Villarreal
in his debut and it was an easy tap in goal. That game ended up a

draw, he has been invisible in every game he has played in so far, and struggling with injury didn't

help his case. Each game he has played seems forced because he is worth so much money and

the fans want to see
him play and this is leading to his failure.

Bale's counterpart Neymar is the complete
opposite, bought for about 57 million euros from

the Brazilian club
Santos he has been playing very well already scoring three goals(one in the

clasico) with six assists in nine La Liga matches. This installment of El Clasico was all Neymar,

the Brazilian wunderkind scored the opening
goal in the match in the 18th minute and then recorded the assist to the Chilean international
Alexis Sanchez in the 78th minute to seal the win for Barca.

Now it wouldn't
be El Clasico without the two best players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo and

Lionel Messi, but sadly both did not get on the score
sheet. However, their presence was definitely felt. Messi drew a lot of the Real Madrid
defenders on the right wing giving Neymar acres

of space to play in on the left wing, which inevitably
helped with Neymar's first goal in El

Clasico. Ronaldo on the other hand only had one
shot at goal and was very invisible until the

90th minute when he got an assist to Jese for a consolation
goal. Besides the controversial non-call on Ronaldo it was a great Clasico to behold and there will be many more to come this season, so stay tuned.